There seems to be some controversy about what is a “natural born citizen,” a Constitutional requirement for all Presidents and VPs. Some say anyone born in the USA. Others say only someone born in the USA from parents, BOTH of whom are citizens. Obama’s father was a foreign national, never a US citizen. What do you say?
If Osama Bin Laden fathered a child with an American woman, could that child eventually become US President?
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Yes, and you are right.
Barak Obama is Bin Ladin’s son.
Fool.
Muslims forbid fornication. Such a scenario would never happen. They also don’t believe in mixing races in relationships like that. So, again, it would never happen.
OBAMA IS A DAMN GOOD PRESIDENT. GET RIGHT!
THE LAW HAS CHANGED, IT IS ONLY ONE WHO IS BORN FROM TWO US CITIZENS. THEY ARE TRYING TO STOP SO MANY IMMIGRANTS.
Yes, I would consider that child a natural born citizen. The phrase “natural born citizen” doesn’t have a hard, legal definition, as you’ve pointed out. For me, the child of any US citizen would be consider a natural born citizen, even if the other parent is not one.
President Erkel’s thought police are on their way to your home right NOW.
This was NEVER supposed to get out!
I say that both parents should be natural born U.S. citizens. Obama couldn’t even present his birth certificate.
Legally, yes he could. However, if people found about his lineage, he probably would not be elected.
… our constitution, in speaking of natural born citizens, uses no affirmative language to make them such, but only recognizes and reaffirms the universal principle, common to all nations, and as old as political society, that the people born in a country do constitute the nation, and, as individuals, are natural members of the body politic
Attorney General Bates, November 29, 1862
If his child were a natural born citizen and was a resident of the United States for 14 years or more, then he could be president.
A Natural Born Citizen is one who has been born in one of the 50 states. Territories don’t count.
It doesn’t matter if one or both parents are legal citizens or illegal immigrants.
If the child is born on US soil, then he/she is a citizen with a United States birth certificate and is able to run for president.
I would, however, imagine that the government could stop his/her candidacy based on the fact that the child is related to a terrorist.
Reference: United States Constitution
There is NO controversy…it’s all just rhetoric.
Presidents Chester A. Arthur and James Buchanan’s fathers were born in Ireland.
In fact, John McCain, although born of American parents, was actually born in Panama.
This is an invented controversy perpetuated by racists who are upset we have a black president…plain and simple.
There is no written legal definition, so we have to go by what laws there are (None of which are intended to provide a complete definition) and what the courts have said. So, as it stands now, anyone born in the United States, regardless of the citizenship of their parents, or anywhere in the world to at least one parent who is a citizen is a natural born citizen. So yes, if he fathered a child with a US citizen, that child would be eligible to become President, once it reaches the age of 35, and having lived in the US for 14 years.
Edit to David S.: That law, which was in effect when Obama was born (It didn’t matter, since he was born in the US) is no longer in effect.
If that ‘baby’ was born in the US , or on US Territory, like McCain was,there’s no problem in that ‘baby’ being a US citizen.
The problem comes in knowing which little ‘baby’ will someday grow up to be POTUS.
Once upon a time, in the steamy jungles of Africa,a skinny baby black boy is born. Already the “plot” is under way. The local witch doctor knew that in just 48 short years, this skinny baby would grow up to be POTUS. Right away, the conspirators place the birth announcements in the Honolulu newspapers. Later they would pull ‘strings’ to get him into the US. Then he ‘cheats’ his way to the top of his class at Harvard. Then he is hidden away as a “community organizer”, before ‘installing’ him as a “do nothing” Senator. All that is left is for Obama to defeat the BEST that both parties have to offer, and keep the ‘real’ birth cert. hidden.
Can I get the local witch doctor that ‘knew’ that the skinny black baby would grow up to be POTUS, to pick some winning lotto tickets for me?
It depends upon how old the mother was in this case. With one parent being a foreign national the other must be an adult citizen for a period of five years to qualify as natural born so if the mother was 18 and the father was a foreign national the child is not natural born.
No.
The Framers of the Constitution used “natural born citizen” and purposely distinguished that phrasing from “citizen,” by exempting themselves from that statute, since they were not born on US soil (it didn’t exist; the colonies were British soil). This indicates that they recognized the difference. The goal was to ensure that the President would most certainly have exclusive loyalty to the USA, a reasonable precaution for the Commander-in-Chief.
Under Vattel’s Law of Nations and common law (the basis for the NBC phrase), a natural born citizen has undivided loyalty to only one nation at birth by virtue of being born on that country’s soil to parents who are BOTH citizens of that country, making their citizenship incontrovertible.
Obama himself admits he was born a dual citizen. There is no evidence that he is not a US citizen, but he cannot be a natural born citizen because he was born with dual citizenship through the British citizenship of his father. Obama is ineligible to the office he holds, a usurper. John McCain is also ineligible because he was born on Panamanian soil.
It is possible. After all, who is to say the child would not be born in the United States, making the nationality of the parents irrelevant?
In any event, any person running for President will be scrutinized, and the fact that a candidate’s father is bin Laden will undoubtably be brought out. Then the voters can make a decision. Considering the current climate and probable future climate, it is unlikely that Osama bin Laden’s son would be elected President unless he has a very lengthly track record that clearly shows he supports the United States and not his father’s way of thinking.
Up until about a year and a half ago, there was no controversy at all. Everyone knew that any kid born in the USA could grow up to be president, didn’t matter who their parents were. Once Obama started doing well in the primaries, suddenly there’s this idea that you need two citizen parents AND being born on US soil to qualify. People discovered de Vattel, a Swiss philosopher who wrote in French in the 18th century, might have said that you needed two citizen parents to be an NBC. (But the translation that claims that didn’t come out until 10 years after the Constitution, and there’s no writings that mention de Vattel in the citizenship part of the Constitution.)
Try finding anything before 2007 that claims two plus soil. The losing side of a couple of Supreme Court cases, or a concurring opinion or two, or Dred Scott (which started a war and a couple of amendments). That’s it. On the other side, tons of citations in law and policy. Dual citizenship can’t count or else you are saying that another country gets to say who can’t be president. (Hypothetical: Cuba says anyone born in the USA of Cuban heritage is a citizen.)